NEWS RELEASE – February 18, 2026
ARH employees selected to present at International Stroke Conference
Lexington, KY – Appalachian Regional Healthcare Neuro Service Line Director Rachel Jenkins and Harlan ARH Hospital Stroke Coordinator and Employee Health Nurse Heather Saylor recently presented at the 2026 International Stroke Conference in New Orleans.
The conference, hosted by the American Heart Association and the American Stroke Association is the world’s largest annual meeting dedicated to stroke care and cerebrovascular science.
The pair was among a select group invited to attend and present based on submitted material.
Rachel Jenkins and Heather Saylor
Jenkins was selected to present an oral abstract sharing ARH’s progress in stroke care – how the stroke care team, led by Jenkins and supported by ARH leadership and medical staff – built a successful program that allows for advanced stroke care in rural Appalachia.
“Presenting this abstract at the International Stroke Conference is both a professional honor and deeply personal,” Jenkins said of the experience. “The progress we’ve made over the past five years reflects the extraordinary dedication of our stroke coordinators and local teams whose compassion and expertise continue to transform care across our system.
“I am incredibly proud of what our teams have built together as we advance ARH’s mission to provide specialized, life-saving care close to home.”
Saylor was selected to share her poster titled, “What’s the Scoop on SCOPE?”
She explained how information gathered from community stroke screenings – part of SCOPE (Stroke Community Outreach Prevention and Education) – can be used to help tailor future attempts at stroke education.
“For example, after a stroke screening, I take the information we gathered and put it into a dashboard to calculate what percentage of those at the screening had a history of diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure or previous stroke” she said. “So, using that information, I can tailor my community events, focusing on educating the population I’m going to be around and, hopefully, resulting in a better buy-in.”
Saylor, whose poster, along with those of the others selected, was displayed at the conference, said she enjoyed meeting attendees from across the country and around the world, and sharing ARH’s story.
“It was truly an honor to be able to highlight what we do and how we take care of our patients,” she said. “We know how hard we work every day, but to hear someone else say how amazing our program is is really special.”
Jenkins agreed, adding, “Attending the International Stroke Conference for the first time was both inspiring and energizing. Meeting national leaders from the American Heart Association and other health systems and hearing how the latest science is being applied in real-world care, reinforced the importance of the work we are doing at ARH.
“I left feeling proud of our progress and even more motivated to continue.”
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About Appalachian Regional Healthcare (ARH)
Appalachian Regional Healthcare (ARH) traces its roots back to 1955, when the United Mine Workers of America opened the Miners Memorial Hospital system – a network of 10 hospitals dedicated to providing care throughout the coalfields of eastern Kentucky and southern West Virginia. Seventy years later, ARH has grown into a 14-hospital not-for-profit health system that serves more than 500,000 residents of central Appalachia each year. ARH hospitals in Barbourville, Harlan, Hazard, Hyden, Martin, McDowell, Middlesboro, Paintsville, Prestonsburg, West Liberty, Whitesburg, and South Williamson in Kentucky, and Beckley and Hinton in West Virginia, ensure that residents, tucked away in even the most remote areas, can access the highest quality of care without traveling hours from home. ARH’s hospitals, clinics, multi-specialty physician practices, home health agencies, home medical equipment stores, retail pharmacies, and medical spas boast more than 6,700 employees with a network of more than 1,300 providers, making it the single largest employer in southeastern Kentucky and the third-largest private employer in southern West Virginia.